We’re All SJW’s Now

It’s been a long eight years–for that matter, it’s been a long eighteen months–with numerous events which, at the time, seemed outrageous or downright absurd. For any who have forgotten this one, Newsweek declared in 2009, shortly after Obama’s inauguration, “We Are All Socialists Now.” Their reasoning was a faltering economy instilling fear in the public for the present and sowing doubt about the future. For the Leftists at Newsweek, it was a given that government intervention was needed to save the economy; and the fact it had begun under a Republican with a Democrat elected promising even more only proved their thesis. Reason.com sneered at the very idea. For the Right to decry the coming of the Marxist apocalypse was as absurd as calling someone Communist and seeing Reds behind every corner. Their condescension was grating and the time and now with hindsight is utterly preposterous. While the more catastrophic predictions of the Right certainly failed to come to pass, there is no doubt the country has moved much farther along the spectrum than perhaps ever before. An unashamed, self-avowed socialist who honeymooned in the USSR was not the kind of irrelevant primary candidate you would have expected in elections past. Moreover, on the Right, even with majorities in Congress to accompany the President, it is unclear if the GOP will actually rollback Obamacare or simply make it their own. Given what we have learned, setting aside the most dire predictions as unlikely, how far along his own spectrum will President Trump move the country? With the way he has already severely warped the Right I believe the answer is quite clear: we are all social justice warriors now.

What exactly is social justice as opposed to justice as we have always known it? Paul Mirengoff points out the inherent contradiction in a piece on Power Line:

“Justice has always been understood in our tradition as justice for the individual, qua individual. When a person goes to court, either in a criminal or a civil case, our system strives to provide him with a result that is fair given what he has done or failed to do. This is what we understand justice to be. Thus, when we say that justice should be blind, we mean that it should be rendered without regard to a person’s social status and without regard to the demands of this or that social agenda.”

Ben Shapiro, rightly, goes even farther and calls it outright evil and points out how the term was first coined by Mao.

The Left, as you might well imagine, vehemently disagrees and despises the very term Social Justice Warrior as mean, derogatory, and untrue. From a HuffPo article on the subject:

“I first learned about SJWs from a friend, who explained to me that social justice warriors are people who defend causes insincerely, for example by claiming to be anti-racist or anti-sexist, all the while being the first person in the room to even notice race and gender.”

Well of course they are. “Social Justice is nothing more than racial hatred justified in pseudo-intellectual terms. This video, by YouTuber Sargon of Akkad, shows the complete dehumanizing of a young based solely on his race. In the name of “social justice,” and based on historical cruel behavior, the SJW defends his cause by going so far as to urge the targeted young man to kill himself for social good. Curiously, similar arguments were used to justify slavery and, later, denial of equal Rights. Continuing with the HuffPo piece:

“My problem with the term “SJW” is that it’s lazily used as a blanket insult to shut up anyone that doesn’t agree with the person who uses it. Rather than rationally debate a person’s views, it’s easier to just write them off as an SJW and be done with it.”

Globalist! Establishment! Or much more crude slurs. Larry Elder tells me to stop reading his Tweets when I point out he’s acting like a Leftist, others flat out block me. A nobody from nowhere with no followers yet still infuriates them to be challenged; akin to media setting out to destroy Joe the Plumber for daring to ask Obama a question and challenge his economic philosophies. Of course, what we all knew on the Right at the time, is that his real crime was making Obama look bad. Is this the crime I’ve committed? And the result of all this will be the ever closing minds of vast swaths of the populace. It is now en vogue to to decry the Facebook algorithms which allow us to so easily slip within protected bubbles of news, thought, and opinion, but William F Buckley noted years ago, “Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.”

This behavior being directly contrary to what the new-right, alt-right, pro-Trump crusaders claim to fight for should come as no surprise. The leader and hero of the self-proclaimed anti-SJW is a constant whiner who can’t stand being challenged. Even after a shocking electoral victory, Trump continues to bristle at being made fun of on Saturday Night Live. Rather than give as good as he gets, Trump whines constantly about media outlets being unfair toward and biased against him. While this may be mostly irrelevant regarding a late night sketch comedy show with dwindling ratings, its still a media outlet being targeted for retribution by the soon-to-be most powerful man in the world. Moreover, Trump infamously suggested during the campaign he wanted to change libel laws to take down outlets which challenge him; an ominous sign given how often he whines about NBC News or CNN being unfair. One wonders how these anti-SJW crusaders would react where Obama to target them and their platforms in a similar fashion.

But of course we don’t have to wonder. Obama did just that repeatedly. The Right was outraged when he targeted Fox News, talk radio in general, and Rush Limbaugh by name and only hinted at some kind of official retaliation. Ben Shapiro succinctly called it what it was: an imperial president attempted to quash dissent contrary to the principles of free speech and debate upon which this country was founded.

Well then. This calls into question what seemed to be a heartfelt post-election cal for sanity, coming together, and rational debate moving forward. Perhaps this isn’t rank hypocrisy. Perhaps, like the SJW’s he denounces, Razor Fist honestly believes his side to be perfect and only those who oppose him are in need of education and adjustment. Perhaps he is capable of such doublethink despite citing Morning Joe’s post-election rant denouncing the media for its bubble which insulated them from the feelings of vast swaths of Americans and kept the media from seeing the state of reality outside their DC-NYC corridor and West Coast enclaves:

“The elite cluster that you don’t know, you had a complete blind spot and you wanted to keep it that way, it was much easier for you to stay in Manhattan and say “they’re all voting for Trump because they’re racists and bigots.” If you really do believe that then you believe that over 50 million people are racists and bigots and if you really do believe that then I take pity on you. You still didn’t don’t understand what Michael Moore understands: America is hurting, economically Middle America is hurting. You don’t understand what’s on and let’s face it, I don’t understand what’s going on out there but you know what Mark and I did that you didn’t do? You know what Mika did that you didn’t do? We actually talked to people in Middle America and they told us they were hurting any they told us why they were voting for Donald Trump.”

To me, the essence of “social justice” is tribalism. It is groupthink at its worst. Everything in the tribe is good. Everything outside the tribe is bad. And everyone MUST belong to a tribe. For the SJW, tribal identity is superficial; race, gender, sexual preferences, etc. But now on the Right, we have our own tribes and you are expelled for any less than 100% agreement. Worse than expelled, you are an untouchable with whom no one should ever again interact. Anyone engaged in online debate and discussion these last years should be well familiar with this attitude and find it abhorrent. How many of you on the Right were told to to “give a link! provide evidence!” only to have your ideological opponent dismiss it out of hand because “everyone knows” that outlet is biased. Well of course they are biased. Everyone is biased. But what does the information say? Is it credible? Is it convincing? Is it supported by other source? Even more telling in this age of open bias, does it run counter to their usual narrative? None of these questions are asked, let alone matter. All that matters is where the outlet or person stands on the great question of our time: Trump or anti-Trump? And if that question is not answered correctly, we can simply ignore the information and remain locked tightly within our dogmatic cages, warm and safe in our ignorance. Falling ever farther away from a nation of principles and toward a nation of parties. That is not a land wherein you will ever find true justice.